The present invention relates to video receiving systems and particularly to remote control units for video receiving systems.
Conventional television receivers may be controlled by a remote control unit. The remote control unit may communicate with the television receiver by a wired or wireless connection. For example, radio frequency or infrared wireless connections may be utilized.
The user may also wish to remotely control a computer system that operates in conjunction with a conventional television receiver. Computer systems, sometimes called set-top computer systems, may be of relatively small size, in some embodiments, and may be positioned on top of a television receiver. The remote control unit may control the set-top computer system which in turn controls the associated television receiver.
Ancillary information, such as program subtitles, emergency messages, closed caption messages and program guide information may be transmitted along with regular television content. More recently, other types of ancillary information that may be sent with the television content includes enhancement data such as web pages, multi-media information or other digital data files. Ancillary information may be sent in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of an analog television broadcast signal or may sent with digital television content over a digital transmission transport medium.
Various standards exist to provide for transmission of ancillary information along with television content. One standard is the Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF) Specification, Draft 1.1r26 dated Feb. 2, 1999. The ATVEF Specification provides for transmission of enhancement data along with television content in both analog and digital systems, such as cable systems, satellite systems, terrestrial systems and so forth.
When enhancement data is available for viewing in conjunction with the broadcast television signal, the viewer usually is advised of its availability. This is conventionally done by an overlay icon which is provided on the viewing screen of the television receiver. However, some viewers prefer to view the broadcast content without additional overlay information. Thus, these viewers may disable the overlay announcements about enhancement data that accompany the television broadcast. As a result, these users are disabled from taking advantage of this enhanced data.
Thus, there is a need for a way to advise users of the availability of enhancement data without interfering with the presentation of the displayed video.